I'm glad you didn't drop that RSS too :)

I definitely feel you on the death of blogging and feeling like you are talking to a wall. But I'm all about quality over quantity. And sometimes it is hard to find people who want to talk about the things I do in my regular life. So even if I can find one or two other people out there.... Besides, I still read blogs and I read them much more than I am on Facebook or even twitter.

Everyone I know seems to be trying to dial back on their social media and trying to get out of facebook in particular. I think if a viable alternative came around that people would use it. I'm thinking to start by trying to replace some of the Facebook groups im in and see how that goes. We'll see. That is a project for after the book has progressed much much farther. Maybe there will be other options by then.

Hope you get inspired to write soon.

Thanks again. Wrote a bit about it. And nicely done on your questions

True. But here is where I live. I don't have much ability or legitimacy trying to change anything else. So I'll just keep trying to muster whatever quixotic attempts to stop being part of the people that are constantly pushing things farther and farther

Do people need to be ready to defend themselves? Yes.

Will there always be conflict in the world? Sadly, yes.

Is there a difference between a community defending itself against an actual threat and a state's standing army, filled mostly with the people that are poor enough that the military is their best option for a reasonable life, where a hierarchy beholden to defense contractors and war profiteers give the orders? Emphatically, yes.

I don't believe you have to think it is a grand elite conspiracy to believe, for instance, that WWI was a useless waste of life perpetrated by power hungry colonial elites at all of our expense.

I think it is impossible to predict exactly how technology will change things. There are always unintended consequences. But I know that we are already at a point where it is not required that all humans work 40 hours for a wage in order for us to survive. Much of what we do now we could just stop doing and the world would be fine. There is no reason why people couldn't spend most of their time pursuing their interests and only a tiny bit of time doing things that are necessary, but that nobody wants to do. The amount of things that exist that nobody wants to do are actually quite small. But nobody who has a lot of wealth and power wants to see free people, because free people aren't going to spend their time cleaning pools and building yachts or marching off to fight wars for them.

In short, the solution is to not have a lifestyle dependent on jobs or the idea that a person has to earn a living rather than them having a right to live. The truly lazy might not have as much stuff or status. But how many people do you know that do absolutely nothing outside of work - no gardening, no fixing cars, no art, no writing.... I can think of nobody.

Maybe. Though it seems like many people need an out that makes them look good in order to change.

I think its good now.

I actually thought of you when I was watching that video.

I think that a world where robots do much of the work will probably be very vulnerable to all kinds of natural and man-made disasters and that, much like with your family, there will probably be a lot of times where those who went back to the land or never left it will be much better off, at least for a time.

But I don't think there is any turning back once a technology exists. I also do not think it is possible for every person currently living on earth to have a patch of land. There is only so much arable land out there. So even if everyone wanted to be self sufficient, it is probably not possible anymore. The truth is, many people don't want to. I for one, really like living in a city.

Finally, I do think there will be room for artisans and the kinds of occupations you have had. But I think we should think about how many of those occupations depend upon wealthy people with extra money. For instance, an animal hospital (especially an expensive one) caters to the kind of people who are able and willing to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a pet. You don't find many ppl earning a living like that in poorer areas of Mexico - or even say a reservation in the US. The pet industry isn't being supported by minimum wage workers and the formerly incarcerated.

Any time. I love your stuff.

And yes, the distribution is key. Open source is a necessary part. But there must also be massive cultural changes in how we see work and ways to manage the power that comes from expertise in crucial areas.

I share your feelings about the cloud, except for stuff like https://owncloud.org/ of course

Open or closed source does make a big difference, but it doesn't seem to me that it would be enough.